William Blake.muse

   1 <verse>
   2 5: Till Covet broke his locks & bars.
   3 And slept with open doors:
   4 Envy sung at the rich mans feast:
   5 Wrath was follow'd up and down
   6 By a little ewe lamb
   7 And Wantonness on his own true love
   8 Begot a giant race:
   9
  10 6: Raging furious the flames of desire
  11 Ran thro' heaven & earth, living flames
  12 Intelligent, organiz'd; arm'd
  13 With destruction & plagues. In the midst
  14 [[http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/object.xq?objectid=b-los.a.illbk.03&java=no][The Eternal Prophet]] bound in a chain
  15 Compell'd to watch Urizens shadow
  16
  17 7: Rag'd with curses & sparkles of fury
  18 Round the flames roll as Los hurls his chains
  19 Mounting up from his fury, condens'd
  20 Rolling round & round, mounting on high
  21 Into vacuum: into non-entity.
  22 Where nothing was! dash'd wide apart
  23 His feet stamp the eternal fierce-raging
  24 Rivers of wide flame; they roll round
  25 And round on all sides making their way
  26 Into darkness and shadowy obscurity
  27 </verse>
  28
  29 <verse>
  30 Unwilling I look up to heaven! unwilling count the stars!
  31 Sitting in fathomless abyss of my immortal shrine.
  32 I sieze their burning power
  33 And bring forth howling terrors, all devouring fiery kings.
  34
  35 Devouring & devoured roaming on dark and desolate mountains
  36 In [[http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/object.xq?objectid=europe.b.illbk.04&java=no][forests of eternal death]], shrieking in hollow trees.
  37 Ah mother Enitharmon!
  38 Stamp not with solid form this vig'rous progeny of fires.
  39
  40 I bring forth from my teeming bosom myriads of flames.
  41 And thou dost stamp them with a signet, then they roam abroad
  42 And leave me void as death;
  43 Ah! I am drown'd in shady woe, and visionary joy.
  44
  45 And who shall bind the infinite with an eternal band?
  46 To compass it with swaddling bands? and who shall cherish it
  47 With milk and honey?
  48 I see it smile & I roll inward & my voice is past.
  49 </verse>
  50
  51 <verse>
  52 For in the depths of Albions bosom in the eastern heaven,
  53 They sound the clarions strong! they chain the howling Captives!
  54 They cast the lots into the helmet; they give the oath of blood in Lambeth
  55 They vote the death of Luvah, & they naild him to Albions Tree in Bath:
  56 They staind him with poisonous blue, they inwove him in cruel roots
  57 To die a death of Six thousand years bound round with vegetation
  58 [[http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/object.xq?objectid=jerusalem.e.illbk.65&java=no][The sun was black]] & the moon rolld a useless globe thro Britain!
  59 </verse>
  60
  61 <verse>
  62 At last when desperation almost tore his heart in twain
  63 He recollected an old Prophecy in Eden recorded,
  64 And often sung to the loud harp at the immortal feasts
  65 That Milton of the Land of Albion should up ascend
  66 Forwards from Ulro from the Vale of Felpham; and set free
  67 Orc from his Chain of Jealousy, he started at the thought
  68 And down descended into Udan-Adan; it was night:
  69 And Satan sat sleeping upon his Couch in Udan Adan:
  70 His Spectre slept, his Shadow woke: when one sleeps th'other wakes
  71
  72 But Milton entering my Foot: I saw in the nether
  73 Regions of the Imagination; also all men on Earth,
  74 And all in Heaven, saw in the nether regions of the Imagination
  75 In Ulro beneath Beulah, the vast breach of Miltons descent.
  76 But I knew not that it was Milton, for man cannot know
  77 What passes in his members till periods of Space & Time
  78 Reveal the secrets of Etenity: for more extensive
  79 Than any other earthly things, are Mans earthly lineaments.
  80
  81 And all this [[http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/object.xq?objectid=milton.a.illbk.19&java=no][Vegetable World]] appeard on my left Foot,
  82 As a bright sandal formd immortal of precious stones & gold:
  83 I stooped down & bound it on to walk forward thro' Eternity.
  84 </verse>
  85
  86 <verse>
  87 Ephraim calld out to Zion: Awake O Brother Mountain
  88 Let us refuse the Plow & Spade, the heavy Roller & spiked
  89 Harrow. burn all these Corn fields. throw down all these fences
  90 Fattend on Human blood & drunk with wine of life is better far
  91 Than all these labours of the harvest & the vintage. See the river
  92 Red with the blood of Men. swells lustful round my rocky knees
  93 My clouds are not the clouds of verdant fields & groves of fruit
  94 But Clouds of Human Souls. my nostrils drink the lives of Men
  95 The Villages Lament. they faint outstretchd upon the plain
  96 Wailing runs round the Valleys from the Mill & from the Barn
  97 But most the polishd Palaces dark silent bow with dreadt
  98 Hiding their books & pictures. underneath the dens of Earth
  99 The Cities send to one another saying My sons are Mad
 100 With wine of cruelty. Let us plat a Scourge O Sister City
 101 Children are nourishd for the Slaughter; once the Child was fed
 102 With Milk; but wherefore now are Children fed with blood
 103 The Horse is of more value than the Man. The Tyger fierce
 104 Laughs at the Human form. the Lion mocks & thirsts for blood
 105 They cry O Spider spread thy web! Enlarge thy bones & fill'd
 106 With marrow. sinews & flesh Exalt thyself attain a voice
 107 Call to thy dark armd hosts, for all the sons of Men muster together
 108 To desolate their cities! Man shall be no more! Awake O Hosts
 109 The bow string sang upon the hills! Luvah & Vala ride
 110 Triumphant in the bloody sky. & the Human form is no more
 111 The listning Stars heard, & the first beam of the morning started back
 112 He cried out to his Father, depart! depart! but sudden Siez'd
 113 And clad in steel. & his Horse proudly neighd; he smelt the battle
 114 Afar off, Rushing back, reddning with rage the Mighty Father
 115 Siezd his bright Sheephook studded with gems & gold, he Swung it round
 116 His head shrill sounding in the sky, down rushd the Sun with noise
 117 Of war, The Mountains fled away they sought a place beneath
 118 Vala remaind in desarts of dark solitude. nor Sun nor Moon
 119 By night nor day to comfort her, she labourd in thick smoke
 120 Tharmas endurd not, he fled howling. then a barren waste sunk
 121 Conglobing in the dark confusion, Mean time Los was born
 122 And Thou O Enitharmon! Hark I hear the hammers of Los
 123 They melt the bones of Vala, & the bones of Luvah into wedges
 124 The innumerable sons & daughters of Luvah closd in furnaces
 125 Melt into furrows. winter blows his bellows: ice & Snow
 126 Tend the dire anvils. Mountains mourn & Rivers faint & fail
 127 There is no City nor Corn-field nor Orchard! all is Rock & Sand
 128 There is no Sun nor Moon nor Star. but rugged wintry rocks
 129 Justling together in the void suspended by inward fires
 130 Impatience now no longer can endure. Distracted Luvah
 131 Bursting forth from the loins of Enitharmon, Thou fierce Terror
 132 Go howl in vain, Smite Smite his fetters Smite O wintry hammers
 133 Smite Spectre of Urthona, mock the fiend who drew us down
 134 From heavens of joy into this Deep. Now rage but rage in vain
 135 Thus Sang the [[http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/erdman.xq?id=b2.3#top][Demons of the Deep]].
 136 </verse>